Rule #1 - Architects are NOT builders. This is VERY important to remember at all times.
Rule #2 - If your builder says eight weeks, ask why. He'll know why HE thinks it will take that long.
Rule #3 - If your builder says eight weeks and it takes 12-16 weeks, smile and be happy. No plan survives first contact with the enemy.

It always amazed me watching DIY channel home projects how people could so seriously under-estimate how much time and effort is required to do 'simple' home improvement projects.

However, the estimate given should have been detailed enough to break down the timeline.

Dismantle and remove all cabinets and tables.
Remove old drywall.
remove ceiling.
remove floor. Fix/repair subfloor as necessary.
run new electrical lines and roughin for outlets/lights switches
Plumbing upgrades?
new drywall
electrical inspections / plumbling inspections
new ceiling installed
new floor installed
new cabinets installed
new countertop, DW, faucets
final electrical
trim moldings, etc
final inspections

And I'm sure I'm leaving something out. 6-8 weeks wouldn't surprise me.

Dseng, that's hilarious - "No plan survives first contact with the enemy." :-) You're right, I need to have an actual builder take a look and explain it to me.

Weedmeister, we will probably have our local old kitchen recyclers come take out the cabinets, the island and the appliances. They take it for resale and give us a tax receipt for the donation, and they do it for free so they have no motivation to take any longer than necessary. Also, apart from the weird little 18-inch by 12-inch corner I mentioned, there's no drywall to remove or put back up because this is an old house with plaster walls. To install new outlets they'll just need to drill out a path in the plaster for the tubing (what is that 3/4"-wide aluminum stuff called that wires can be run through?) to be run up from the basement right below, and then patch up the wall a bit--not to cosmetic perfection, since there will be cabinets in front of or backsplash tiles on top of the paths that the tubing runs through. But yes, the ceiling is probably a bigger deal than I'm anticipating, and I'm sure the floor will be somewhat hellacious.

But I think you can use a kitchen before it's inspected, right? I was just basically asking the architect, how long do we have to live on microwave meals and take-out? How long until we can put the appliances and sink in and use it, even though it's still being worked on? I wasn't asking how long until the last fleck of construction dust is gone, the last paint touch-up has been applied and it's got the seal of approval from our local building inspectors.

That sounds long to me if you're just talking actual work. Your scope and kitchen sound very similar to ours, and I'm managing the work for our project---we have bids in from each of the trades at this point, and it breaks down like this:

- 2 days for demo (though they might finish in 1)
- 3 days for electrical (I'm giving them a week)
- 1/2 day for plumbing (only a dishwasher hookup and faucet/sink)
- 1 day for flooring (but we decided to do this ourselves since we're using linoleum tiles, so it will be more like a long weekend---need much more time here for refinishing a floor, though)
- 3 days for HVAC people at separate ends of process (first 2 technically for furnace/water heater replacement, though, so if you don't have to deal with that it will be much faster)
- 1 day for drywall
- 1-2 days for painting (again, doing this ourselves so allowing extra time)
- 2-3 days for cabinet install + moulding

Countertop is not in here as we haven't decided on that yet, but I'm assuming that's 1 day to come out and template and 1 day to come install, since it's a small kitchen.

So that's around three weeks, since I'm only counting weekdays except for the things we're doing. Add some glitchy downtime for not being able to schedule everyone when they say they can come. Then add in time for unexpected problems, permit inspections, waiting for inspectors, etc., and you might be inching closer to six weeks. Also, a few things (flooring, sink) need to be ordered several weeks in advance, so if they're counting that waiting time, it could also be longer.

All of this comes with the caveat that we have not started work yet, though---could be another story once we do! :) But we have already had all the electrical, plumbing, and HVAC systems looked at pretty extensively and added scope accordingly to fix the issues that emerged there and we're already going down to the studs on three of the four walls, so there aren't all that many systems/components left in the mix to have problems! Subfloor damage is probably the biggie since there's just no way to tell till the old floor is off. They could just be giving you 8 weeks as an outside limit to give you a buffer for anything like that, too. (We did interview several general contractors before decided to go solo on this, though, and all of them said they could get us back into a functional, if not finished, kitchen in 3 or 4 weeks.)

BTW, our two days of demo are with our local kitchen recyclers too. :)

Well my project is a bit bigger...demo existing kitchen and back stairway, add 80 square foot addition, change out 2 windows in existing kitchen, build new back stairway to basement, add laundry area to 2nd floor bathroom and reconfigure closet in space where the backstairs used to be. It was supposed to take 3 months. It's going on 6. If you eliminate completely absurd delays, it still wouldn't have close to the 3 months...might have been 4.

My rule of thumb: Take what they tell you and mentally double it. If it works out anywhere near close to the estimate, be thrilled. If not, you're prepared.

Just having gone thru an addition and remodel on an old home, I will tell you that nothing is simple. :-) The process is also not as orchestrated as you think it could be - there are of a ton of inefficiencies that add days (then weeks...) to your project. It is maddening. I can tell you what held us up:

1. surprises - rotted subfloor or joists, uneven floor, dealing with thresholds, fixing the crazy junction box, etc..

2. drywall - they put it up, they disappear, they tape it, they disappear, they mud it, they disappear, they sand it, they disappear.. etc.. our drywall took 10 days. Everything else was at a standstill.

3. Floors - refinishing hardwoods took about 10 days for all of the sanding, stain, coats of poly and waiting. Again no one can do anything while this is happening.

5. inspections - don't always happen like they should.

6. Trim - we had lots of trim work to make the new space jibe with old space. Very time intensive, but so worth it.

7. Dozens upon dozens of inane details that cause delays: like a small drawer that hits the microwave drawer when extended so cabinetmaker takes back to shop to fix, counters waiting on drawer, painter is waiting on drawer... and on and on.

I agree with dseng - smile and be happy and go into the project expecting delays. DH and I were too focused on the timeline and we were a bit crazed as a result (why? i have no idea.. well, except for the reason we were eating in the living room...). Keep your sense of humor, take many deep breaths and good luck!!

Ever reno is individual, but on average I tell clients to be prepared to be without use of their kitchen from 3-6 weeks. It can be shorter if you're OK with keeping your old countertops and sink and using them temporarily while you are waiting on your countertops.

The process is as follows:

Do "exploratory surgery" if you have an old home and/or want to make changes beyond just a "like for like" redo. You need to know what's behind that soffit and whether or not your electrical panel can handle the demands of a modern kitchen.

Finalize design. Wait to schedule a visit from your installer to go over the design in person on site before it's ordered. This is a crucial step that way too many people skip. It's the last "2nd set of eyes and tape measure" before you order.

Order cabinets and appliances. Wait 3-12 weeks for them to be delivered. Have installer check them all to be sure that you got what you ordered and it wasn't damaged. Damaged? Wait another 3-5 weeks for replacement.

Set up a temporary kitchen. You need to have running water and a fridge and MW and a minimum of dust and distractions. I had one client who did this in her master bath. She did the dishes in one of the vanity bowls and had the coffee and MW in the master closet. She liked the setup enough that she added a coffee station to the master when the kitchen was done!

Do demo. What, you say, why aren't I doing demo while I'm waiting on the cabinets and other materials to come in. It sounds counter intuitive, but you actually save time if you don't start the project unless everything you need is on hand. Waiting for this to happen minimizes the time you're actually without the use of your kitchen.

Begin rebuilding your dream. Wait while the unexpected takes it's toll on both your budget and your patience and it's closer to 8-12 weeks that you're without a functional kitchen just because the flooring contractor didn't use the right chemical combination for a new product and the finish isn't setting up so you have to resand and restain. Or your beautiful fireclay sink that you so carefully checked in at delivery has inexplicably developed a chip in it during storage and you have to wait 8 weeks for another one while "Not ME" continues to play hockey indoor in your cabinetless kitchen because your jurisdiction's codes have changed and you now have to redo your lighting plan entirely.

The only constant in a reno is change, and the surety that the change will cost you time and money! So, plan that temp kitchen well!

You indicate you are in an older house. That would make your project very unpredictable at best even if the project seems simple at first.

As far as using the kitchen before inspection, you may not be able to do that if adding the electrical requires opening walls.

This is a good example of how the time goes by...

We did veneer plaster - that's a thin coat of plaster over special drywall. We hired it out and it took a week (no sanding) to prep and install 48 linear feet of 8.5 foot tall walls and skim coat the rest of the walls to match. It had to dry for at least a week before painting or cabinet installation.

After priming, the ceiling showed some rippling near the wall intersections - another two-three days of running time to fix all that and then re-prime.

T & G Board paneling on two narrow walls took three days of running time to prep the boards - sand, clean, shellac sealer, priming, two coats of paint - while keeping the tongues and grooves clean. Two days of installation - lots of measure, fit, cut, etc. Some quality time at the big box store staring at small crown moldings, buy and install one. And a couple days to get a special piece of millwork made - its not anything special, just an oversized panel corner.

Oh, and it made the bathroom door jamb a little too small to fix with extensions, so new door jamb which hadn't planned on - ok cause we had to replace the outside door jamb so might as well do two as do one. One week to get a special order premade exterior jamb and one trip to get boards and trim for the exterior jamb. One day to actually do both replacements. But the bathroom door closes properly all the time now, an unexpected benefit.

Replace missing trim (pretty much all) baseboards, door casings, about three days wait for special cut moldings and two days of installation. We actually researched this in advance and had most of it on hand, but everyone kept cutting pieces of the baseboard to use for other things plus we ran out of door casing because of our own poor estimate.

Prime the trim - one day.

Two days to paint two coats.

So about 5-6 weeks from ready to start with drywall to painted walls.

if you're in an old house add time for electrical that is unexpected, walls that aren't plumb (can't hang cabinets or put tile on uneven walls), plumbing that needs to be brought up to today's code, floors that need to be leveled, etc. and everything else that was mentioned. our whole condo was supposed to take until middle of sept. we started end of may. now we've been pushed back to end of oct. with luck I expect to be done by mid dec. lol. as others have said double the time estimate and be sure to add at least 15-20 percent to the budget.

Just getting the last details done on the kitchen in my (old) house. Similar size to yours, pretty similar scope...although I replaced windows (only took a morning). Didn't move any walls, but framed new doorway for laundry.
I looked over my calendar. Projected time frame was 6-8 weeks total. I know this contractor well..he does most of the work himself and showed up every day unless there was really nothing to do.

Contractor started demo 6/16. We had a sink/counters/hood/working range (so it was functional, if still a mess) by 7/24. Not that great to work in, though, as the lighting was not in and most things were still stored in the temporary kitchen until after the painters finished (this was about 8/28). Since then we've been full speed as far as using the kitchen, just tying up odds and ends. I know it SEEMS like once you get the basics in the hard part is over, but it's still such a mess while you have workers in and out, no dishwasher, etc...we still ate out and used the grill and microwave most of the time until September.
If the electrician had not been an unreliable jerk I suspect we would have finished 7-10 days earlier. (Everything stopped while we waited for him to show up for the radiant heating-despite the fact he had been booked a month in advance.) But there were no major surprises under the floor or with the HVAC, which could have slowed us down more. We also delayed about a week waiting for the right beadboard (my fault..suddenly got picky).
So we were about 6 weeks to partial function, 11 to be essentially done....9 if hadn't had screw-ups.

We are just completed a similar project - remodel of original 1950's kitchen (9x14). Our project included new cabinets, new bamboo floor, new lighting and new appliances. Demo to functional kitchen took us two weeks. This was mostly DIY. We had awesome subs and my DH (a GC) is really talented. A lot could have gone wrong and we were lucky to not encountered any unforeseen issues with the house.

DH was able to complete the demo by himself in one day.

Electricians were onsite for two days and installed 6 large can lights and 3 small can lights, all on dimmers.

Cabinets where installed in two.

Plumbers where there for approx 5 hours - hook up DW, install range, sink and new gas line for stove.

Granite took approx 1 week from template to installation.

Our major hold up was flooring - mainly because I decided on a different color two days before installation. :) We have to wait a few days for the new order to come in and then there was some confusion over glue/nail down.

We were initally told 5-6 weeks from start to completion. Knew from reading here to double it. Old house from the 1870s, last kitchen put in/expanded 1968.

My husband did at least 75% of the demo himself (ended up good for our timeline that he did); while doing this, took a peek into the dropped ceiling and saw no real reason for the drop. Luckily, we decided at the last minute to have the GC rip down this part of the ceiling on Day 1 to see if it could be raised...good news was yes, but the bad news was that whoever expanded the kitchen 40 years ago neglected to support the ceiling over the addition, and the second floor had sagged almost 2" (this is where my oldest son sleeps). So this was something major, not in the budget (though we did have padding for extras) or timeline, that needed to be fixed.

Our floor was uneven (we knew this) but they could only even it so much without jacking up the house, which would cause more damage to the walls and floors throughout the house, so we didn't do that. The still uneven floors led to the tile job that was estimated to take 2 days taking 4, and also led to our cabinet maker needing to completely rework/remake the bottoms of our base cabinets for installation on this wonky floor.

We also picked floor tile 3 times in about a one week time span--the first two times we were informed it was either out of stock or no longer made; this led to a mad dash and 1 day decision on completely different new tile. Oh, and our copper backsplash has twice been destroyed by a delivery company, and is now being remade for the third time (and delivered by a different company!).

I have changed my cabinet delivery date from 9/20, to 9/23, to 9/30. My appliances moved from September 23rd to the 29th; my templating date switched from 9/23 to 9/29 and is now scheduled for 10/7, with install on 10/14. Hopefully these are the dates that will stick, but who knows?

I just counted--if these dates DO stick, then I will actually be in a finished kitchen in 6-7 calendar weeks--so not too bad after all! But there is still alot to do--they are just finishing putting up drywall today, then there is taping and sanding and putting up trim and painting and the like; my newly exposed brick chimney still needs to be cleaned and sealed; my new windows need to be installed and trimmed; moving the phone jack and instaling a little bit of plugmold; lights have to be hung; new trim around two doors; the cabinet install is expected to take at least 3 days if not more because of all the shimming/trimming to be done; appliances must be installed, etc.

I still think, based on other's experiences, that you should take what the contractor tells you and double it; you'll only end up happy and impressed if they finish within that time frame. And definitely make sure your budget contains overrun/unexpected padding, you are sure to need it.

Sorry so long, but just wanted to show it's a lot of little things piling up that can end up causing bigger delays.

Good luck!

It also just occurred to me (duh!) that a BIG reason our electrical and plumbing work are pretty short and predictable is that the PO had the plumbing redone and we had all the old knob & tube wiring replaced three years ago, knowing that the kitchen remodel was coming---so all we're doing this time is adding wiring for a hood, adding a couple of counter outlets to existing circuits, and tweaking locations on some things. Not moving plumbing at all.

If you still have original 1930s wiring in your house, in most states you're going to need to update your main panel to meet modern kitchen code. When we did our house (1250 sf) it was two weeks for a new panel and new wiring throughout, so that adds a chunk of time. (I think only 4-5 days of that was actual work, and the rest was waiting for inspections, though.) It's worth doing all at once though---where we are, we have to pay for each of those outlets again for inspection since the walls will be open, which is really stupid.

How many days a week are they working?

My experience with contractors, workers etc is they work one day, then off one day (relaxing, working other jobs, etc). Wish my work was like that:)

So if they work MWF that should take 8 weeks easily :)

Remember the rule of thumb for remodels - Twice the time, twice the money!

I think the thing that people forget about the people working on their houses is that the people don't work for THEM, they work for the contractor.

You are very likely only one of their job sites, and they move workers around to make the most efficient use of their time and skills.

And the GC is orchestrating not only his own usual workers, but but also subcontractors for specialties like electrics, plumbing, tiling, etc. Also perhaps some special things like that special stove, with a sub he may never have worked with, or has no arrangement with, and is merely opening the door for as a favor to you.

The contractor is not just arranging his own time, he's committing the time of other people, on a delicately orchestrated schedule -- say, he can't book Eddie the tiler if Manny the electrician hasn't finished, who can't start until the stove, which is backordered, has been delivered. And nobody can go into the room during Week 4, which is the only week Dave is available to put in the floor.

All this may require time cushioning. He may estimate a reasonable amount of time between jobs so that he has a good chance of getting the subs in in an orderly way.

Then, everyone swears they won't change their mind about things, or hold up the project, but we all do so in small ways. I admit my guilt.

That's when the issues other people talk about come in -- the little surprises that happen on every job. It doesn't matter if your house is 5 years old or 150, they're going to happen.

So don't book any big parties at your house 8 weeks from now. But it will all be fine in the end. 8 weeks is not that bad.

Old house here, 95 years "young" :p

Now in month #4. Losing my mind. On the verge of a nervous breakdown. Thankfully going on a cruise end of October, which we sorely need. I doubt it will be done by then.

Why so long?

Permits held up at DOB.
Plumbing disasters.
Electrical surprises.
Contractor coordination.
Contractor vacations while in the middle of doing their work - causing it to take double the amount of time it should (for instance, my cabinets were started 3 weeks ago, and the guy comes back this Monday, however, won't start up again until the following Saturday, I "THINK")
Misalignment of kitchen walls, floors in general.
Normal periods of stand-still between trades.
More disasters.
Cabinet which didn't fit and had to be reordered (twice).
Coordination of trying to move into the house in between all of this.
Disappearance of electrician for days on end.
Waiting periods between each phase for inspections.

Etc.

Best of luck. Truly I bit off more than I can chew. I sort of regret purchasing my home now (I'm not just doing the kitchen, there is more scope to it). I closed in May, construction started in June at some point (under the table and for real, mid-June). I really hope that by the beginning of November this is completely done. It really is too much already.

sivyaleah, right there with you. Very much missing my apartment right now. Good luck to you and to the OP. One way or another the renos will, in fact, end.

Hugs to you marcolo. I can't say I'm missing my apartment; because at the end of living there I was having nearly as many "disasters" (for example the hot water heater failed and we were without hot water for 3 days while it leaked, rusted and died a slow death in the laundry room while we waited for the landlord to get off his ass and attend to it).

Home living has it's advantages but I do wish at this point I had gotten into a nice, new modern condo instead of being charmed by the old world details of my handsome Craftsman.

Had a sneaky suspicion that we should allow extra time for things like rewiring, unleveled floors and other stuff that go's into a remodel.

We have talked with a G.C. who do's all the work himself. It may take longer and more money but it will pay off in the long haul. We plan to live in this house for quite a while.

We are planning to talk to a designer about our kitchen plans to find out if they are workable also. We have a small travel trailer as our kitchen.

We have been planning for our kitchen remodel for 2 years and we're getting more familiar with what we like as far as materials are concerned, so that I don't have to run around trying to decide at the last minute. Although I will have too because anything can and will happen with a remodel. Part of the work going into a remodel is the planning. The work takes as long as it takes.